Like the Emancipation Proclamation, Obama’s Order Forces Democracy

Like the Emancipation Proclamation, Obama’s Order Forces Democracy

By Bruce Ackerman

at

 http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-ackerman-obama-immigration-20141123-story.html

Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation provides the foundational precedent for President Obama's executive order on immigrants in the country illegally.

Before Lincoln issued his pronouncement in September 1862, congressional majorities had expressly affirmed that the war effort only aimed “to preserve the Union” without “overthrowing … established institutions” in the rebel states. The proclamation was an act of executive unilateralism, and as Obama has done in his order, Lincoln limited its scope in recognition of this fact. As a result, both proclamations serve only to initiate, rather than preempt, further democratic debate and decision.